Hobby Types – Travelling

Hobbies are adopted as pastimes, sources of relaxation, education, information and enlarging one’s vision and horizon.  And there is one hobby that encompasses all in one – Travelling. Yes, travelling takes a person from one land to another, see and explore new worlds and places, meet people, see their culture, eat new foods, find new resorts to fish and climb mountains, learn ski on snow covered slopes as the person’s country may not have snow clad mountains at all. According to Samuel Johnson, “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."

When travelling one gets to know history – rather I would put it this way that one walks through history when visiting ancient remains, fortifications, castles in Rome and Greece. For those who also love art, find great artwork of Michael Angelo in Florence, Italy. Those interested in collecting antiques, coins and other valuables find time to attend auctions in Paris and England and get to see some of the rare collections.

Though expensive, it is all in one hobby that also satisfies one’s intellectual and sensuous cravings.  Those who are good writers pen down their travel experiences and provide a good reading source for those whose best pastime is book reading.  An observant traveler and writers can take the reader of his travelogue actually to the place and the readers feel as if they are there with the writers climbing rusty stairs of a castle or feeling the fresh odour of the Alpine mountains or the aroma of Chalo Kebab in the streets of Tehran. Or when may visit the Kim’s Gun on The Mall, Lahore where the famous British writer Rudyard Kipling sat by the gun in defiance to the rules of the municipality and wrote some of his great travelogues and stories. Or one may lean with the leaning tower of Pisa and get oneself photographed.

A traveler comes to know the heritage of a place and that of older civilizations still reflective from the ruins of a place. Coupled with listening to the locals, the anecdotes allow better understanding of history, people and aspirations. Needless to say understanding human nature is, perhaps, the best part of education. 

Travelling is all fun and more so a stress buster. When travelling distant lands and meeting new people, one forgets about one’s stressful life back home and is fully absorbed in one’s ongoing new experience of a place. Listening to the music by a local group on a roadside café can be amusing. And then if you have a camera by your side, you can preserve your moments and satisfy your hobby of photography and share later with your folks once back home.

A traveler is free as long as he travels – free from stress of the work and problems of daily household. This feeling of being free makes one afloat and lighter in time and space. The hobby of travelling is a hobby of enduring the beauty of God's creativity and skill fullness. If you haven’t thought of travelling, other than your official routine, then take a break today and plan on a small trip to a nearby country or even another city in your own country you haven’t visited before. You will feel lighter and happy.